Bless his little heart

From my sweet little nephew Logan:

Christmas at the James'

Christmas at the James house was a little different this year.

My poor father woke up and didn't feel good so he decided to check himself into the hospital ER. Come to find out he had two kidney stones. Poor dad. He came home at noon when I drove to Manteca to pick up his meds. Other than my poor dad being in his room almost all day we had a good time. My brother and his kids were there the whole day and that was really nice.
Jack got something he liked here... hahaha.
And here he got some new clothes from Grandma Buttons (my mom). He decided to put them on right away. He even put on his new shirt and pants and then realized he forgot his new Lego Indiana Jones underwear and took his pants back off to put them on. He likes new clothes. He cracks me up!!
One of the brief moments my dad made it out of bed. The dog was still taking care of him though.
And she wasn't far from mom either.
Me.
Dinner. Yum!!

My stash!!!
It was a very nice day... despite my dad not being in the room. Looking forward to next year!!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

My Dad's Birthday dinner this year was a quite one... as a matter of fact I don't even have pics of my dad opening his presents (My mom does though... no worries). However, I do of course have pictures of the food. Because it is one of my favorites!!!! Hooray for dad's birthday dinner!!!

Before:

After:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!

Apple Hill 2008

My family has a tradition on the day after Thanksgiving. We all head up to Apple Hill to cut down our Christmas Tree!! It is without a doubt my favorite day of the entire year. We have been going there for about 7 years now and were very blessed to have great weather this year!!

Our first stop is in old town Folsom for breakfast at Sutter Street Grill. They have the most amazing omelette's!!!! I usually get the cheese, spinach, mushroom and avocado. Oh my.... I'm salivating just thinking about it. Johnny met up with us in time for breakfast.


My brothers oldest two kids had spent the night with us so they too were there for breakfast.

After breakfast we walk around the old town and into the antique shops. Once we are done there we head up to Apple Hill to find the perfect tree. Here goes Jack tearing through our options on his search.

Catrinia is happy to be held and take it all in.

After we find the tree we cut it down. Well, we used to cut it down... but now we just wave the guy with the chain saw over and they cut it down for us. Then it is family photo time. Here is the best of the bunch:

Letty got creative and took this pic of Johnny and I. I think it's pretty cute!

Hey when you have to go, you have to go:

My mother loves to take a picture of our backsides while we are all walking back to the car. She calls it 'The End'. Ha!!! Here is 'The End' 2008:

Logan helped Grandpa Buttons take the tree to the car. What a good helper.


After the tree is strapped down and we grab a turkey sandwich from Letty's car, we head over to old town Placerville. There is always a tree lighting ceremony as well as carolers, a live nativity scene and a stagecoach ride. This year my parents and the kids went on the stagecoach ride around the block. While they did that Johnny and I walked around and checked out all of the shops and antique stores. I guess the kids had a blast... but soon after they had a melt down and headed home.

Yes, I made him put this hat on. LOL!!

Once we have walked and seen all that we want to in Placerville we head off to dinner. We ended up at Tahoe Joes. YUM!! I had the bacon wrapped fillet and lobster. Oh yes I did!!! Then it was time to go home. Which makes me sad. I wish Apple Hill day would go on forever. Such a great day!! I'm looking forward to Apple Hill 2009!!

Thanksgiving 2008

(I'm about a month behind here... I know.)
Thanksgiving 2008 was pretty low key this year. Which was very nice. Mom and I made the food. As usual it was an amazing spread. :o) Here I am making the dessert. See that pile of chocolate?? It's for the chocolate soup. YUM!!!! It is the favorite dessert of the girls in our family. Maybe one day I'll post the recipe.

Mostly everyone just kicked back in the living room. The kids colored and played. The adults visited. My grandparents where here from Livermore and my Uncle Terry was here for Georgia.

We normally take a picture at the dinner table all looking at the camera... but we didn't this year. This is as good as it gets. Ha!

After dinner Denae showed up and stayed for a few hours. We all visited and she helped the kids color.

It was a great day!! Filled with family, friends, love and memories. The best kind of day!!

SF Day 2008

We started a new family tradition last year of going to San Francisco to see the Christmas Decorations and visit with Denae and her boyfriend Derek. This year Johnny joined us. Here we are on our way:

We first stopped at D&D's apartment to check out their new place and new fish & tank. It is very cute. The view from their roof is amazing!! I don't have pics. So you will just have to trust me. Ha!! After we checked out their pad we took the bus down to the Ferry Building on Pier One. This was Johnny's first bus ride ever!!

We walked around the Ferry Building on Pier One and bought some bread and chocolate then headed over the Union Square. We saw the Macy's windows where all the little kittens were for sale in their little window displays. Very cute. We also saw the huge tree in the building across the street I don't know the name of:

Then we headed over to the Cheesecake Factory to make our reservation for dinner. There was over an hour wait so we lounged in the furniture department while we waited:

Then it was dinner and dessert time!!! Sooooo good!!! If you have never had the Avocado Eggrolls there... You HAVE to try them!!! They are the best!!! We all split the Banana Cheesecake for dessert. It was very good!!

Then we headed outside to take a picture by the tree. They also had an ice skating rink there this year... seems to be they are every where this year...

Did I mention it was cold?? Here we are by the tree:
I'm looking forward to SF 2009!!

Road trip... and the rain...

Johnny and I took a road trip a few weeks ago. It was a beautiful day!!! Sunny with just a few puffy clouds. Perfect day for a drive.

We went up by Clear Lake for Johnny to get his hunting tree stand out of the tree as hunting season is over. We get there and walk about 15 minutes in to the tree stand. Above is the pic of when we are about 5 minutes in. We saw several deer and doe or whatever you call them along the way in. The air was brisk and clean smelled so good. LOVED IT!! I miss fresh air. Ha!!

We get to the tree and Johnny takes about 15 minutes getting it down and packed up. As soon as he finish we started to walk back. About 3 steps from the tree a little tiny drop of rain lands on my nose. And apparently on Johnny's too... because we both looked at each other and said "its sprinkling!!" and we kept on walking thinking it should clear up in a second. Especially since it wasn't even cloudy when we walked in there 35 minutes earlier. About 10 steps later it started to 'sprinkle' a little harder. And then harder.... and then it was a full on rain. We started laughing... after all it's only a random little sprinkle/rain right? Um no, within 3 minutes of it starting it was POURING!! We got drenched!!!!

By the time we made it back to the truck we were soaked through and through. And cold!! So we cranked up the heater and cracked the windows and started to drive to old town Clear Lake. Unfortunately the rain did NOT let up and we were so cold and soggy that we decided to not leave the truck to walk around. Not to mention, neither of us had a jacket. We did stop for about an hour at the Jackson Casino though. We grabbed a coffee, gambled $100 of his money (he lost $80.00 and I made $50 on the $20.00 I used. Heehee) took this picture and left.

Johnny ended up with really bad cold from the adventure. I ended up with these pics and we both have the memories!!

Tag You're It!!

My friends Allie at Curves With Attitude and Courtney at Practicing Patience TAGGED me for a photo blog.
The rules are as follows:Go to your 6th picture folder & copy your 6th picture and put what it is here. Then tag 5 other people to do the same.

This is my grandparents during our October 2007 James family photo get together.

I don't have 5 followers to tag.... so I'm only tagging the two that haven't done this yet. Ha!!!

I tag:
Mike @ Murrow's Blog
Letty @ My Little Family

My Family

This is my family:
Okay more specifically:
My grandparents here with both of their sons, my father and my Uncle Terry, who lives in Georgia.

My parents. Dad is a genius (mad scientist really) and can make or fix anything. Mom loves doing Genealogy, and is a very good cook!!

My brother Chad (a painter and all around good and funny guy) and his wife Letty (ridiculously crafty, creative and fun) with their four adorable kids.

Aren't they so cute!!! Lett made the girls dresses!! Logan is the oldest, then Caitlyn, Jack and Catrinia.

Logan is an organizer. He loves to set things up and have a spot for everything. He is a nuzzler. He is the original pirate.

Caitlyn loves purple, pink, bugs, all things outdoors and to run on her tippy-toes (and she is fast!!).

Jack is a comedian. He has more facial expressions than Jim Carrey. Mr. Go-With-The-Flow. He is also a pirate... Capt'n Jack.

Catrina is a just a doll. She is so petite and lovey. She is like me in that she loves to just lay around in bed. Ha!! (she wanted me to pick her up in this pic... so cute!!)

Denae is my sister (by choice). She is random and indecisive. She keeps me entertained and laughing everyday.

Johnny is my future. He is my best friend. He is many wonderful things... of which I will save for another blog.

And that is the main players... for now. I have heard rumor that Chad and Lett may have more... and I'm hoping one day to have a few myself. Maybe Lett and Denae and I will all have one at the same time!! Wouldn't that be a hoot (as my mother would say)!!

I love my family!!